WINTER CAMPA Weekend Virtual Retreat

Enjoy a Retreat Experience from the Comfort of Your Living Room. Select Either the MindBody Therapy or Yoga Philosophy Option.

About the Retreat

Just as the holiday stress is over and our resolutions are wearing thin, we offer you a reboot.

Embodied Philosophy's annual Winter Virtual Retreat is a three-day experience of living wisely and with intention, while studying wisdom teachings, embodied techniques and contemplative research with some of the world's most respected teachers.

Join luminary philosophers, scientists and researchers as they discuss principles of resilience, contemplative practice and some of the latest research in yoga, social justice, somatic techniques, eastern philosophy and contemplative studies.

Retreaters have three options:

Choose the Yoga Philosophy Track

Choose the MindBody Therapy Track

Choose Both Tracks

All enrolled retreaters will study together on Friday, as well as the early part of both Saturday and Sunday for morning contemplative practices and guest speakers. In the afternoon on the weekends, the two groups will break off into their respective fields (Yoga Philosophy or MindBody Therapy) for afternoon guest speakers and discussion.

All sessions will be recorded and made available to all registrants. If you are not able to attend the entire retreat, you will receive access to the recordings by the following day. See below for retreat schedule.

Talks Include...

In this interactive lecture, we will explore Tibetan yoga and the "Path of Bliss." Tibetan Buddhist yoga is a tantric practice that combines challenging yoga posture sequences with prānāyāma breath retentions and tantric visualizations. Among two stylistically distinct paths to enlightenment, yoga falls under the "Path of Bliss" rather than the "Path of Liberation." While the Path of Liberation is said to be more straightforward because one meditates directly on "The View" of reality itself, the Path of Bliss offers unique benefits despite being a somewhat circuitous path to enlightenment. We will reflect on "bliss" in light of the experience of many modern yoga practitioners who simply love and enjoy their yoga practice. Is there something beyond sensory enjoyment, and how does Tibetan Buddhism frame that experience?

Tibetan Buddhist yoga and Indian haṭha yoga share texts, lineage masters, and metaphysics, and there is evidence for this dating as far back as the 11th century. Much of Tantric Buddhism has roots in Kashmir and Bengal around the tenth and eleventh centuries, and there is a continuous history of exchange. We will look at the history of yoga in Tibet and its relationship to India, and the common features among these traditions. Many obscure metaphysical features of yoga are explained with striking clarity in Tibetan literature. We will also take a close look at a yoga tradition currently practiced just outside of Mysore, South India, at Namdroling monastery and nunnery in the Tibetan refugee camp of Bylakuppe. Namdroling's yoga tradition has been practiced continuously in Tibet since the seventeenth century and was kept secret. Nowadays, as Tibetan Buddhism increasingly enters into the public sphere, this tradition serves as a window onto the lived experience of yoga reaching into pre-modern times. Namdroling brings to light an ancient yet continuous yoga tradition.

The “Science of Social Justice” is the evidence-based study of the intersectional biopsychosocial impact of the psychological (mental), embodied (physiological), and relational (relationship-based) trauma that has resulted from centuries of systemic and institutionalized oppression for marginalized populations here in the U.S. and abroad.

In other words, it is the scientific examination of how systemic oppression has a combined physiological, emotional and psychological impact that expresses itself as personal and collective trauma, and thus requires the creative development and use of contemplative and embodied practices to ground our understanding of how interdisciplinary and translational science that can support a return to holistic health particularly for marginalized individuals and communities.

Yogic sciences demonstrate how healing justice is available to us not simply in theory but as praxis. It has always been part of and emerges from within indigenous epistemologies. The classical texts of yoga such as the Bhagavad Gita and Patanjali Yogashastra, as well as modern and contemporary social justice organizing work carry on the practice of yoga in action. The foundational Honor Yoga framework emerges from within the yoga tradition to guide how we honor these practices from the inside out and how to apply this knowledge to create more unity rather than separation. Yoga is inherently a science of social justice that leads to liberation for ourselves and others collectively. It is a systematically organized body of knowledge on and for human liberation.

Depth Hypnosis is a unique and highly effective therapeutic model, that offers a clear path for healing and transformation. Developed by Isa Gucciardi, Ph.D., it combines elements of shamanism, Buddhism, transpersonal psychology, energy medicine and hypnotherapy. Through the skillful use of the altered state, Depth Hypnosis works with the intelligence of the body to help clients access aspects of their experience that are held by the body, beyond the purview of the conscious mind.

As clients are assisted in releasing the grip of the conscious mind, they are able to access this intelligence, learn more about their broader experience, and shift their relationship to the root causes of presenting symptoms. This workshop focuses on the somatic principles contained in Depth Hypnosis and provides students with resources for personal transformation and for working with individuals on their personal healing path. Counseling professionals will find this methodology useful in working with their clients.

It is within the fullness of Community that we are challenged and guided to listen well, speak our truths, and connect across our differences to find common ground. To do so, it’s of the utmost importance to organize around what we deeply care about, learn to manage moods, take decisive and skillful action, and relate with grounded compassionate wisdom.

Somatic Consensus training supports developing skills to notice our habitual strategies and reactions to conflict and change. Somatic Consensus’ body awareness and intuitive practices attune us to the signals of our bodies and the present, direct, and immediate experience of the life we are living, the source from which everything we do is in service of. This is where we come face to face with the history we’ve embodied, our deeper self, our greatest gifts, and the motivation to develop new and more skillful, inclusive responses to life's challenges to connect across our differences.

Guest Speakers Include

Joe Loizzo

Psychotherapist & Buddhist Scholar-Teacher

Sará King

Neuroscientist

James Mallinson

Hatha Yoga Historian

Susanna Barkataki

Yoga & Social Change

Kate O'Donnell

Ayurvedic Practitioner

Isa Gucciardi

Depth Hypnosis

Naomi Worth

Tibetan Yoga

David Weinstock

Nonviolent Communication Trainer & Somatic Coach

Join Us January 17th - 19th, 2020

All Sessions will be Recorded and Made Available to You the Following Day.